Serum supply: policies and controls operating in New Zealand.

This paper surveys the legislation and policies governing serum supply in force in New Zealand at present, and outlines the regulatory controls, both direct and indirect, associated with the production of animal sera. Direct controls are concerned with the welfare of the donor animals and the production and processing of the product. Controls are also applied to preserve New Zealand's animal health status through import controls of animals and animal products.

An evaluation of the comparative tuberculin skin test for detecting tuberculosis in farmed deer.

A comparative cervical skin test using 1.0 mg/ml bovine purified protein derivative and 0.5 mg/ml avian purified protein derivative was evaluated as a method for detecting tuberculosis in farmed deer.

Short interval intradermal skin testing in farmed red deer (Cervus elaphus) inoculated with Mycobacterium bovis.

Two groups of 26 red deer (Cervus elaphus) were tuberculin skin tested for 41 weeks at three and six week intervals respectively, except at 17 weeks when the internal was two and five weeks. Seventeen weeks after the start of the experiment 36 deer were inoculated intratracheally with Mycobacterium bovis, and the remaining 16 were run in-contact. At six weeks post inoculation, 35 of the 36 inoculated deer reacted to the skin test with a mean skin thickness difference (STD) of 6.

Experimental tuberculosis in red deer (Cervus elaphus).

This study was designed to investigate experimental Mycobacterium bovis infection of red deer (Cervus elaphus). Three intravenously inoculated deer (dose 10 microg-1000 microg) developed miliary tuberculosis of the lungs and all died within 28 days of being infected. No clinical illnesses were observed in four subcutaneously (dose 1 microg-1000 microg) and three intratracheally (dose 10 microg-100 microg) inoculated deer.

Bovine leukaemia virus infection in New Zealand cattle.

Bovine Leukaemia Virus (BLV) infection in New Zealand cattle was investigated. In a national survey of 5000 sera from 500 herds, BLV antibody was not detected. An additional 1062 sera from 140 herds were tested and 3 sera were positive.